TMC is an independent, primarily volunteer organization that relies on ad revenue to cover its operating costs. Please consider whitelisting TMC on your ad blocker and becoming a Supporting Member. For more info: Support TMC

[Rumor] Significant Engineering Issues with Model 3

I talked to some folks recently who gave some insight into the current state of the Model 3.

Most worryingly is some very important components are currently being produced with high failure rates. This is due to design changes (vs Model S) to make manufacturing more economical. Those involved are not showing high confidence that these problems will definitely be solved on time.

More positive news is that the internal goal is still July to begin production, although at a lower rate that stated elsewhere (<100 / wk).

Overall I have concerns that they will be on time with a reliable product. I am a fan/investor so I am not rooting for this, but wanted to let you know what I heard.

I talked to some folks recently who gave some insight into the current state of the Model 3.

Most worryingly is some very important components are currently being produced with high failure rates. This is due to design changes (vs Model S) to make manufacturing more economical. Those involved are not showing high confidence that these problems will definitely be solved on time.

More positive news is that the internal goal is still July to begin production, although at a lower rate that stated elsewhere (<100 / wk).

Overall I have concerns that they will be on time with a reliable product. I am a fan/investor so I am not rooting for this, but wanted to let you know what I heard.

Click to expand...

Design changes? The Model 3 was designed from the ground up and is not a reconfiguration of the S, supposedly.

Who are your sources?

Ah, you have friends that work at Tesla I see. What is it they do exactly and which components are they referring to?

Right not a reconfig, individual components were newly designed (re-designed maybe not the best word). And some in a way that are having issues that the old design didn't have.

The components are important enough that the car would drive for long if they were faulty.

And I'm not a short. Go look at my other post referring to info about prototype production.

Click to expand...

Is it whompy wheels?

Some of the original S motors had greasing problems which were fixed with automation. It could be simply a manufacturing fix instead of an inherent design flaw.... Unless the battery packs are overheating, then that's a design issue.

Well, if they are seeing failures then that's a good thing. We want them to find all possible failures in the testing phase, and we them to find even more when the employees start testing their models. The more they find and fix, the better ours will be.

Wow. Some unnamed parts that ICE cars don't have, newly designed individual components and zowie geee, maybe they can't fix them in time. Were this to be a little bit more vague we'd do better.
This is a pointless thread with no information.

I talked to some folks recently who gave some insight into the current state of the Model 3.

Most worryingly is some very important components are currently being produced with high failure rates. This is due to design changes (vs Model S) to make manufacturing more economical. Those involved are not showing high confidence that these problems will definitely be solved on time.

More positive news is that the internal goal is still July to begin production, although at a lower rate that stated elsewhere (<100 / wk).

Overall I have concerns that they will be on time with a reliable product. I am a fan/investor so I am not rooting for this, but wanted to let you know what I heard.

Click to expand...

You have production quality control issues with components when you do not allocate enough resources for a state-of-the-art Quality Management System.

Some companies consider the QC budget as a cost center instead of a profit center. If the QMS is solid, it actually becomes a profit center when the final production, rework, and warranty costs are added up. The Japanese were perhaps the first real masters at this, but today it is very pervasive in all major industries.

The car is scheduled to go into production in less than 3 months, and they are still tweaking essential components (like not just interior dome light covers)?

Click to expand...

3 months is actually a lot of time, especially for a company that schedules something like 20+ production changes per week even in the Model S/X lines. I mean, that's assuming they know what's failing and get failures to reproduce fast enough.